Member state health ministers have called for all EU states to develop plans to help tackle antibiotic resistance.

In a meeting on 17th June, ministers agreed that all EU member states must have in place a national action plan against antimicrobial resistance by the middle of next year, to combat growing resistance to antibiotics, which is putting human and animal medicine at risk.

The agreement comes less than a month after the UK government-commissioned O’Neill review was published in full, making a series of recommendations including incentivising the development of new antibiotics, acting to prevent spread of disease in the first place and introducing country-specific targets for the reduction of antimicrobial use in livestock (banning use of last resort treatments in animal agriculture). The report warns that, unless concerted action is taken quickly to combat growing resistance, then antibiotic-resistant bacteria could kill one person every three seconds by mid-century.

By preventing the effective treatment of infections, antimicrobial resistance is already thought to cause 700 000 deaths each year worldwide and 25 000 in Europe.

The EU Council wants to see national plans developed in cooperation between public and private sector and include measurable targets for reducing antibiotics use in human and animal medicine. Member state ministers also advised introducing “Actions to avoid the routine preventive use of veterinary antimicrobials and actions to restrict the use in animals of antimicrobials that are of critical importance to human health” and stressed that the plans should be legally enforceable, rather than being voluntary measures.

They said Member States should share best practice and updates via the EU One Health Network and take measures to prevent infections occurring in animal agriculture, including better biosecurity measures and the use of vaccines.

The ministers want to see member state plans feeding into a new and comprehensive EU Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance, which will include overall surveillance, efforts to prevent illegal use and distribution of antibiotics, foster development of new antibiotics and push for measures to reduce the prevalence of antibiotic resistant bacteria in humans, animals and the environment in the EU.

A detailed breakdown of the Council’s plans is available here.